Postage rip off

mike_paterson

hilary1 wrote:

Rip offs - yes, but you have the choice not to bid.

The problem is you cannot search on total price so it makes it difficult to exclude the rip-off postage items ! I am suprised that ebay has not resolved this as it is costing them money too in reduced final price payments.

MarkyMarkD

Tell me about it, mike. That really annoys me and is a sign that ebay is not being serious about attacking "P&P" inflation.

bluejake

The thing is no one really knows what someone elses' postage costs are. Quite often the complainers only consider the cost of stamps. They do not consider packaging, labels, tape, marker pens, equipment and even labour costs, heating costs, petrol costs, vehicles, machinery. Some people will argue that some of these costs are not postage costs but if you have a warehouse where your items are dispatched from as some big sellers do , then they are. Certainly other companies must take these costs into account if they don't won't to go bankrupt. Ultimately it is up to the seller to decide what his costs are and how they will be proportioned.

Some people have a little temper tantrum because they want to pay £20 in total but the seller wants £30 in total. I wonder if these people do this with other companies, you now start lecturing them on what their costs are and demanding lower prices.

The original poster sounds like a complete Jackass. £20 postage seems about right for a leather Jacket. I have one and it is heavy and awkward to pack. £6 postage and the seller would likely be losing out in my opinion.

Although I agree people should be able to sift items by price including postage.

kevinyork

mike_paterson wrote:

This whole postage thing is a pain.
Sellers do it to catch buyers out (buyer beware) and to get around ebay fees. It is actually agianst ebay rules to charge rip-off postage but ebay do not seem to be bothered.
I was researching mmc memory cards the other day - these things are tiny and even wrapped in packaging will only cost 60p or so to post (probably a 1st class stamp would be enough), but have a p&P charge of £20.

I immediately ignore anybody that is blatently doing this and buy elsewhere, bit it is so annoying to look at buy it nows , organise them by lowest cost first and have the whole list screwed because the P&P is not counted !

Maybe ebay will eventually get their act together on this one as they must be losing loads of money !

Totally agree Mike, as Im one of the UK sellers of memory cards who's postage is either included in the price or just 50p. Yet I am competing with hundreds of sellers listing thousands of memory cards as you set out. A large majority are from the Far East and eBay have a policy of not taking action on items from the far east unless postage is over £20. I was told this by an eBay employee who responds to reports about fee avoidance. Their excuse is that postal costs are higher in the far east than in the UK. Total rubbish. If that was the case all these sellers letting their memeory cards sell for 1p and £20.00 postage would be making a loss on them all!

I am in a constant battle with eBay reporting blatent fee evaders (e.g. 1p for a 2GB Memory Stick and £32.00 postage. All they do is possibly remove the one you report but leave the other 500 similar listings by the same seller running. Ive had some success lately by not letting them off the hook and constantly replying to their emails sent in response to me reporting someone. However it takes about half a dozen strongly worded emails for anything constructive to happen. Over the last 2 weeks I finally managed to get around 6 Chineese sellers suspended for fee avoidance but they ALL started relisting again yesterday on the same pricing structure - no deterrent there then! Its infuriating. Ebay is so large that for them to deal with the thousands of fee evaders would take an army of staff to process the offenders and eBay are very tight!!!! Although they lose out on fees they know they will still make money on the Paypal transaction since they own Paypal too.

The most annoying thing is that UK buyers purchase from these far east sellers with ridiculous postage and then leave a negative saying something like 'cost hiim £1 to post but I paid £30'. Well a) why buy from them in the first place-they cant possibly think they are getting a 1p memory card that is being sent at a cost of £30 and b) why dont they report them to eBay for fee evasion rather than leave a negative.

Whilst eBays' inneffective policy enforcement is one problem, these sellers would not be able to continue on the same basis if people didnt buy from their listings with inflated postage in the first place!


Kev

mah_jong

Just thought I would say I was looking for memory stick during the last few days, the one that I wanted, quickest 99p and £15 postage ( or something like that!) so I waited and got a 'proper' price for both! The total was approx the same but happier with the pricing of the one I bought!

However people dont look/care whilst watching people were bidding more on auctions than they could buy on a BIN from the same seller!!

mishkanorman

I've only skim read the previous posts ( sorry got bored !) so my apologies if someone has pointed this out already,

Could it not be the case that the seller is quite keen to get rid of the jacket with the cheaper p+p so is doing a reduced price to attract bidders ??

I sell on ebay and was once contacted by someone who felt my p+P was a bit much, I agreed and reduced it, he had a point , he apologised in advance in case he had offended me and was incrediably polite about it.

Perhaps the OP could have said something along the lines of ' could you meet me half way, I really want the jacket but the P+P puts it over budget ?'

I think people presume all sellers on ebay are scammers and try to catch them out, and when they feel they have that gives them the right to be foul and abusive. The OP should be ashamed imho .

mishka

SmileBeHappy

mishkanorman wrote:

I've only skim read the previous posts ( sorry got bored !) so my apologies if someone has pointed this out already,

Could it not be the case that the seller is quite keen to get rid of the jacket with the cheaper p+p so is doing a reduced price to attract bidders ??

I sell on ebay and was once contacted by someone who felt my p+P was a bit much, I agreed and reduced it, he had a point , he apologised in advance in case he had offended me and was incrediably polite about it.

Perhaps the OP could have said something along the lines of ' could you meet me half way, I really want the jacket but the P+P puts it over budget ?'

I think people presume all sellers on ebay are scammers and try to catch them out, and when they feel they have that gives them the right to be foul and abusive. The OP should be ashamed imho .

mishka

The OP was downright rude, ok so the seller may've breached the rules by charging extra postage, but to be fair a jacket wudnt cost much less to post, but the OP was just abusive. People always have and always will charge extra for postage, just something we gotta live with really. always add it to the price to give a total, and if your not happy- Don't bid- simple really

Laura

mishkanorman

The seller was downright rude

WHAT !

They gave the reason for not reducing the postage, which is a valid one.

but the seller was just abusive

HOW ???

They didnt say anything abusive , unless you know otherwise.

are we reading the same posts ?????

SmileBeHappy

sorry, i was tired, blame it all on that. No...just to clarify, i ment the OP was abusive...the seller was ok, but may've charged slightly higher than nesesary postage. My mistake...sorry

Laura

Have now altered my post so it actually makes the slightest bit of sense lol

MattOsprey

I sold a book a couple of days ago. The book sold for £50, the p&p is £21.
This is not inflated, it is actual costs. The book is heavy and valuable (hoped it would sell for more). I will therefore only send it Special next day delivery. If a bidder doesn't like my clearly stated t&c's then they can go elsewhere.
Matt